Love & Decay (Season 1): Episodes 1-6

by Rachel Higginson

  Looking around at a room of men leering at me with hungry eyes and guns and knives strapped to every available space on them, I decided they probably saved them to make toothpicks or pencils out of them or something equally as weird as they were.

  Yeesh, I could not wait to be out of here.

  We hurried back to the house we were temporarily staying in and divided into our separate rooms. Our bags were thrown into sloppy piles in the living room, so once we’d found our own we spent time in our rooms reorganizing the mess the henchman had made.

  I rolled up my underwear desperately wishing I could bleach them after those guys had their disgusting paws on them. I felt violated. I felt wronged.

  Mostly I felt like complaining.

  Haley flopped on the dusty bed and rolled over with a groan. “This sucks. And my shoulder’s sore from all that shooting earlier.”

  I rubbed my own shoulder, “Mine too. It’s kind of funny though. A week ago we would have given our right arms to sleep in a bed,” I sighed. “Now look at us. Turning our noses up at free housing.”

  “Yeah, but this housing isn’t exactly free, Reags,” Haley pointed out.

  “What do you think about those women, Hales? Can we start a crusade to give them freedom?” I lay back next to her so that our heads were touching and we were staring at the ceiling bathed in moonlight from the open windows and the candles we lit after we got home from dinner.

  “We could start a non-profit, I’ll be the CEO, you be public relations,” she suggested but then turned sad again. “I don’t think they’ll want to go Reagan. I think this is the life they choose.”

  “It’s scary out there. I can’t blame them. They might not have any other choice.”

  “I hate this.” Haley sounded depressingly resigned and I reached out to hold her hand, hating this as much as she did. “When did life get so screwed up?”

  “Ok, let’s play,” I perked up at the thought of our favorite game. “We haven’t played in a while.”

  “We haven’t needed to since the Parker brothers came into our lives,” Haley giggled.

  I laughed too. “Yes, I think it’s safe to say your attention has been successfully diverted.”

  “Oh, right, because I’m the only one making googly eyes.” She elbowed me in the side. “Pretty sure I’ve at least narrowed down my options.”

  “Pretty sure he narrowed them down for you.” I turned to face her. “Huh, Mrs. Nelson Parker.”

  She looked at me for a second, deciding if we were going to have girl talk or play our game

  before blurting out, “Keep fountain pop. Leave never having toilet paper when you need it.”

  I sighed, “Those are good ones. God, what I wouldn’t give for an ice cold Coke straight from the machine.”

  “You’re making it worse,” Haley groaned.

  A knock on our door startled us both and we jumped up to sitting. Haley was closest to the door so she rolled off the bed and yanked it open.

  Page stared back at us through the candlelight, her pale face drawn and sleepy. She was still wearing the stocking cap, but her long hair had started to escape in wispy strands along her face. “Can I sleep with you guys tonight?” she asked in her sweet little girl voice. “The boys smell bad.”

  We laughed but agreed and Haley let her in. She crawled onto the bed in between us and we all lay there holding hands with our heads together. Haley leaned over and blew out the candles before settling back in.

  “We’re playing a game, Page, want to play with us?” Haley asked once we were submerged in darkness.

  The environment around us was noisier than usual. People moved about outside and the boys were making sounds throughout the house. I was used to almost complete silence save for the occasional cricket and the all the new and different sounds were perturbing. The game was soothing my nerves and lulling me to sleep.

  “Sure,” Page said on a yawn. “How do you play?”

  “We call it Keep-One, Leave-One,” I explained. “So, I’m going to say something I would keep from before the whole Zombie thing happened and I’m going to say something I hate that I would like to leave and not have to deal with. I would keep Netflix. I loved watching movies, curled up on my couch with my boyfriend.”

  “The boyfriend that turned into a Zombie?” Page asked innocently.

  “Yep, that’s the one.” I coughed out. “And I would leave no air conditioning. I miss air conditioning.”

  “Me too,” Haley whispered.

  “Me too,” echoed Page.

  “Ok, Page, it’s your turn,” I prompted, nudging her arm with my elbow. I held my breath afraid she would pick one of her parents to keep.

  But she surprised us all by saying, “I would keep popsicles. I miss popsicles.”

  “That is a good one,” Haley laughed.

  “And I would leave…. these people. I don’t like these people we have to stay with.” Her voice was a whisper of fear and I hated that she ever felt afraid, let alone her whole life revolving around it.

  No, that was wrong. Page’s whole life revolved around love according to Vaughan. Page was one of the lucky ones, even in this unlucky world.

  “We’ll be gone by morning,” I promised, turning over and curling up with her.

  “I know.” Her voice was still small, but there was confidence behind it. “Vaughan won’t let us stay here when there’s daylight. He’ll keep us safe.”

  When another knock struck our door, we were only able to lift our heads to the sound before it was pushed open and Vaughan, Nelson and Hendrix all pressed their way into our room. They each held up a candle so they could see their way around. The light reflected off their bright eyes and cast shadows across their faces. It wasn’t fair that they were so attractive looking even in candlelight; it seemed like there should be some bad lighting for these guys. Maybe I should get them under some bright fluorescents or a black light. That could probably help my self-esteem.

  “Page,” Vaughan scolded. “There you are.”

  “We were worried, Pagey,” Hendrix was next. “You need to tell someone where you are at all times.”

  Nobody said anything, expecting Nelson to chime in next, when he finally got the hint he said, “Oh, I’m just trying to catch Haley in her underwear.”

  I was the only one that laughed.

  “Page,” Vaughan repeated.

  “I did tell someone, I told Haley and Reagan.” Page said firmly.

  Page was the kind of eight-year-old child that listened perfectly and obeyed immediately. Who knew how she would have turned out pre-Apocalypse with five older brothers spoiling her, but in this world she was raised by necessity. I think we were all surprised when she defied Vaughan’s reprimand.

  Finally, Vaughan said, “Page, that’s not the same thing as telling Hendrix or me.”

  “What about me?” Nelson complained.

  “You lost your parental privilege when you admitted to creeping on Haley,” Hendrix groaned.

  “Fair enough,” Nelson agreed.

  “Page, we all like having Haley and Reagan around, but keeping an eye on you is a big job. We haven’t asked them to watch over you,” Hendrix explained calmly. He sounded so much more like a parent than a twenty-two year old man. His expression was stern and unrelenting under the candlelight. “Plus you have five brothers to keep an eye you, what more could you ask for?”

  “That they take a shower,” I mumbled, so only Page could hear me, since we were still cuddled up next to each other.

  She burst into a fit of giggles and attempted to pull herself together. “Hendrix,” she said seriously. “Vaughan, you have my permission to ask Haley and Reagan to accept partial custody.”

  “Partial custody?” Vaughan repeated, stunned. “Where in the world did you hear that?”

  “In first grade, Jacob Stephens’s parents were divorced. He talked about it all the time.” She held up her hand in a sassy way that showed her age and I couldn’t stop the smile from spreadi
ng across my face.

  “You think this is funny?” Hendrix looked down at me, but even in the low lights I could see the amusement in his eyes.

  “Please let her spend the night with us?” I begged, wrapping my arms around her and squeezing tight.

  “We promise to be good,” Haley added.

  “It’s alright with me,” Vaughan finally agreed and turned to Hendrix. “Is it alright with you, sweetheart?”

  “It’s only alright with me, if this is an open invitation slumber party.” Nelson brought the candle closer to his face and waggled his eyebrows.

  Haley threw a shoe at him, which messed up her in-case-of-emergency-evacuation-outfit, so she had to get up, hunt it down and re-place it with the other one. Nelson waited until she bent over by her outfit to give her hip a shove and knock her over. She sprawled out on the floor, but I couldn’t see her expression in the darkness.

  I imagined it was a “What the hell am I supposed to do with you?” kind of face, though.

  “Alright, Casanova, there’s no co-ed sleeping,” Hendrix reprimanded, tugging on the back of Nelson’s shirt.

  Vaughan cleared his throat and said, “Tonight, at least.”

  “What does co-ed mean?” Page asked into the darkness.

  “And that’s your cue to leave,” I called out- me, the stern voice of authority.

  There was some grumbling from Nelson, but Hendrix and Vaughan shuffled him out and we were left, just the girls, again.

  “Haley, I think Nelson has a crush on you,” Page whispered into the darkness.

  Haley and I were silent for a long time before she finally admitted, “I think he does, too.”

  We were quiet, each lost in our own thoughts until they turned into dreams.

  The next knock on our door happened a little before sunrise. I’d already been awake, in anticipation of getting the hell out of here, so I jumped up at the sound.

  Vaughan was standing in my doorway with sleep tousled hair and a neatly trimmed beard. He rubbed a hand over his face, trying to wipe away the tiredness then shot me a crooked grin.

  “Morning,” He rumbled, his voice like gravel.

  The good, soothing kind of gravel that I wanted to be made into books on cd.

  “Good morning,” I smiled back.

  “We’re leaving in a half hour. Can you get everyone up?”

  “Yes, no problem.”

  He hovered around the door, not making a move to leave. He was making me nervous with all his anxious energy and I wasn’t exactly sure what he was expecting from me.

  Finally he said, “Did Page do alright last night?”

  “Oh, yeah,” I nodded enthusiastically. “We all slept great.” Which wasn’t exactly true, but my standards for a good night’s sleep had significantly lowered since Zombies became reality. It was super hard to reach REM when nightmares of being snatched from my bed and being forced to work in a brothel that paid in cigarettes kept looping through my head.

  “Good,” he smiled.

  I smiled back.

  “You know you can always trust us with her,” I whispered sincerely. “We’ve already basically adopted her. We will take care of her, Vaughan.”

  “So you’re going to stick around with us then?” he asked carefully, his eyes mysteriously shuddered.

  “Are you kidding? After this little vacation from Zombies,” I gestured around with my hand, “we are definitely committed to the Parker brothers.”

  “That’s good news, Reagan. I think at this point, one or more of my brothers would be heartbroken if you and Haley took off.”

  I cleared my throat self-consciously, “Well, then it’s good we’re sticking around.”

  “Plus, there’s me to worry about,” he continued, as if I hadn’t said anything.

  “You’d be heartbroken?” I laughed, not believing him for a second.

  “Not yet,” he took a step closer and played with a loose end of my hair that curled around my shoulder. “But I’m working on it.”

  I collided with his gaze and felt myself tilt off balance, not physically of course, but emotionally and spiritually and mentally and whatever other ways there were. Vaughan offered that half-smile again that curved just one side of his mouth and I felt the barrage of butterflies in my stomach like a battlefield assault.

  “Get ready, Reagan,” Vaughan ordered gently. “We’re leaving as soon as we can.”

  I nodded, it was all I was capable of at this point, and turned around to gather Haley and Page. We dressed and packed as quickly as we could and met the boys in front of the house. We double checked to make sure we had everything we came with; it wasn’t like we would be coming back for anything we forgot.

  We walked back to the office we’d first come to yesterday and all breathed a huge sigh of relief when the Hummer sat parked and ready. Gary and a couple other guys were just inside the office doors, smoking cigarettes and drinking cups of coffee.

  I ignored the coffee.

  I didn’t drink coffee anymore and I didn’t think about coffee anymore. There was no reason to drool and envy and change my mind about staying here over hot, delicious-smelling coffee.

  Absolutely no reason.

  “Damn it, they have coffee,” Haley growled.

  “Why must they be so cruel?” I cried dramatically.

  “You can’t possibly be that upset over coffee?” Hendrix smirked, his own beard neatly trimmed, and his hair roughly cut.

  “Was there a slumber party after all?” I asked dryly. “Did you trim each other’s beards? Cut each other’s hair?”

  “Have a pillow fight?” Haley giggled, waggling her eyebrows.

  Hendrix, shockingly, scowled. Okay, maybe that wasn’t so shocking. “There was a, uh, large enough mirror so we could see what we were doing.” He actually seemed embarrassed by his efforts to look more human. Unfortunately, I found that really endearing.

  I reached up before I could talk myself out of it and rubbed my fingers along his jawline, “It looks nice.”

  He froze, became completely still and his gaze captured mine. Slowly he lifted his own hand and held it over mine, helping me cup his jawline in my hand. “Yeah?”

  “Yeah,” I smiled. “You look less Duck Dynasty, more approachable-human-being.”

  “Oh,” he sounded disappointed at my assessment. I had to wonder if he was insulted by the Duck Dynasty reference when he said, “I’m not trying to look approachable at all. In fact, my whole thing is that I’m very, very unapproachable.”

  I chuckled at his attempted joke. “You want some of us to approach you, don’t you?” I took a step forward to mess with him, bringing our chests just an inch apart.

  “Yes, I would like some of you to approach me,” he murmured.

  “Then probably you should keep yourself well-groomed,” I patted his cheek a little roughly and turned around.

  “You first,” he mumbled and I swiveled around to gape at him.

  “That is our secret,” I hissed at him. His reference was to my disgusting legs that desperately needed a shave. He laughed at me and walked away. “Hendrix, that’s a secret!” I called out, but he was no longer interested in what I had to say.

  Vaughan walked out of the office with keys in his hand. He held them up so we could all see them and pointed at the back of the van.

  “Get in,” he ordered.

  “Our weapons?” Hendrix bit out, all business now.

  “He says we’ll get them at the gates,” Vaughan explained.

  Hendrix looked in disbelief back at the office. “And you believed him?”

  “Not a chance in hell. But we’re leaving right now with or without them. So get your ass in the car.”

  Hendrix obeyed, along with the rest of us. I crawled in the back with the other girls and we took everyone’s packs and laid them as neatly as we could in the trunk from our position. At any other stop we would have taken the time to pack the trunk efficiently and orderly, but I understood Vaughan’s urgency to get
out of here. We could deal with a little chaos to escape General Doom and his army of bat-shit perverts.

  Vaughan sped to the gate and hopped out of the hummer to speak with an exhausted looking armed man. He’d clearly been at the gate all night; his eyes were black and blue with exhaustion and his hair a wild mess. He was a little bit twitchy too and I talked myself into believing he’d just drank a ton of coffee.

  I mean, if I lived here and had access to coffee, I would probably be jumpy all the time too.

  Because once upon a time I was completely addicted to the stuff. Of course, that was when I could add my girly creamers or buy it iced, blended or with soy. Those days were long gone, and I probably wouldn’t have felt the same kind of love for something barely warm, gritty and straight black.

  Vaughan started arguing with the guy at the gate, making wide hand gestures, getting in his face and raising his voice. Eventually Hendrix and Nelson hopped out of the vehicle to assist in this testosterone induced demand for our possessions. More hand gestures, more threatening invasions of personal space and finally an intimidating look at each other and the tired man finally shrugged his shoulders and retrieved the three duffle bags.

  They looked relatively untouched, sitting at the back of the guard house. Each brother took a bag and immediately unzipped it to check the contents. Whatever was in there apparently wasn’t right because it seemed to only enrage the brothers more. Nelson shot to his feet and got right in the guards face. The guard pulled a gun on him and gestured towards the Hummer.

  Vaughan and Hendrix pulled out guns of their own and aimed them directly at the guys face. More guns were drawn from the higher gun towers and the other gun stations. This was like a Western Movie style standoff but the good news was, I was pretty sure I was on the winning side.

  Everyone in the Hummer watched with tense fascination. I was shocked to find out that even though there were all these guns being pointed at the guys, I still trusted Vaughan to get us out of here. Like he said, these men were motivated by fear, but he was motivated by love. Love would win every single time.